Administering medication and vitamins, in tablet or capsule form to infants, the elderly, and otherwise feeble hospital patients can be problematic. Not only do these patients have difficulty swallowing the pills, when feeble hospital patients die it is not uncommon for an autopsy to reveal multiple intact pills within the deceased body because the liver failed to produce sufficient enzymes to break through the pill shell. This, of course, prohibits the medication from being dispersed timely into the bloodstream and may contribute to the patient's death. As a result, medication such as aspirin, antibiotics, and other drugs are frequently available in liquid form for easy administration to hospital patients experiencing difficulty with pills and capsules.
For those instances where the medication is only available in pill or capsule form, the pills are frequently crushed in a first container (i.e. with a pestle and mortar), and the pill crushings are then transferred to a second container or dispensing utensil where they can be mixed with a fluid for oral administration to the patient. As detailed in the parent hereto, as cross-referenced above, there are several drawbacks with the pestle and mortar technique such as the risk of low and unpredictable dosage compliance, cross-contamination, and the necessity to purchase and maintain an inventory of multiple utensils and containers for the crushing, mixing, and dispensing tasks. As disclosed and claimed in the parent, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, a similar problem of administering medication in pill or capsule form exists for comatose and many infirm adult patients physically unable to swallow medication in pill or capsule form. The solution thereto was provided by the pill-crushing syringe disclosed and claimed in the inventor's prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,376,072, noted above. The invention disclosed and claimed therein is a good and valuable invention which itself may be used to crush pills for suspension in a fluid for administration principally through an intravenous tube or the like but which may also be administered orally.
As disclosed in the parent cross-referenced above, the inventors herein have built upon the general pill crushing concept by successfully designing and developing a single use pill dispensing cup with a cup bottom having an abraded surface on its interior and exterior surface. The cup is designed to nest and, when used as a nesting pair, a pill may be placed between an upper and lower cup and crushed between the two abraded surfaces on the interior and exterior of the cup bottoms. Although prior art single use medicine dispensing cups are typically thin walled and flexible, the present invention contemplates a more substantial construction for the cup so as to withstand the force required to crush the pill as the cups are pushed together against the pill and twisted. Additionally, if desired, the cup may have a wider lip to provide a finger grip for the hands as the cups are twisted together.
The abraded surfaces on the interior and exterior surface of each cup bottom are formed from a plurality of pyramidal shaped protrusions with the protrusions having a flatter angle on the exterior surface than on the interior surface. This flatter angle on the exterior surface makes it less likely that pill crushings will be trapped between the protrusions and instead will remain within the bottom cup. After the pill is crushed, fluid is added to the bottom cup to create the suspension which may then be administered. If there are any pill crushings clinging to the exterior surface of the top cup, it may be conveniently "dunked" in the fluid contained in the lower cup and agitated to remove any remaining pill crushings therefrom. This helps to insure high dosage compliance.
After a nested pair are used to crush and administer a pill, they may be conveniently discarded because of their low cost and this eliminates any risk of cross contamination. As a single cup design is used, it may be readily manufactured at high volume using plastics such as polypropylene or polyethylene and thereby produced at a very low cost. Furthermore, the pill crushing feature of the invention is an added bonus and need not be used should the cups be desired simply for dispensing medication as with the prior art cups presently used.
While the pill crushing syringe and the pill crushing/dispensing cups are elegant, simple designs which are amenable to low cost, high volume manufacture, the inventors herein have again built upon the pill crushing concept in order to solve further problems in the prior art and to meet a long felt need. The inventors herein have succeeded in developing a pair of pill crushing cups which enable a pill to be safely stored, crushed, mixed with a liquid, and dispensed directly from one of the cups with minimal risk of contamination and a high degree of dosage compliance.
The cups snap-fit together, top-to-top, defining a cavity therebetween to store a dosage of medication in pill, tablet, or capsule form. The pair of cups includes a base cup, a nesting cup, and a pair of opposing abraded surfaces on the interior and exterior bottom of the base cup and nesting cup, respectively. The snap-fitting feature is achieved by an annular detent adjacent the top of the base cup and an annular recess adjacent the top of the nesting cup for mating with the detent.
To crush the pill(s) stored within the cavity of the cup pair, the snap-fit engagement is decoupled with the base cup facing substantially upward. The nesting cup is nested within the base cup such that the pill is lodged snugly between the opposing abraded surfaces of the base cup and nesting cup. The two cups are pushed and twisted with respect to each other until the pill is crushed and/or ground into fine particles. An annular flange on the outside of the nesting cup engages the rim of the base cup to prevent the abraded surfaces of the base cup and nesting cup from meshing. This allows the particles to be finely crushed/ground by the opposing abraded surfaces, but minimizes the possibility of pill particles being packed within these abraded surfaces which would make a full suspension of the medication more difficult. The nesting cup is then removed and a liquid is added to the base cup for mixing with the pill particles. The abraded surface of the nesting cup may be dipped into the liquid to wash any residual pill crushings therefrom, and the nesting cup is again snap-fit with the base cup. The snap-fit engagement provides a substantial fluid seal which allows the cup pair to be shaken vigorously thereby facilitating rapid and complete suspension of the pill crushings with the liquid. The snap-fit engagement is then decoupled and the suspension may be administered directly from either cup.
While the principal advantages and features of the present invention have been briefly described above, a more thorough understanding and appreciation for the invention's advantages and features may be attained by referring to the drawings and descriptions of the preferred embodiment which follow.